Rob Dibble to Stephen Strasburg: "Suck it up"

Stephen Strasburg shouldn't just miss his next start. The Nats should shut him down for the year. Two warning lights in a month - first shoulder, then forearm - are enough. When an Indy car is running in the red, you may try to finish a race. You can get a new engine. But there's only one Jeezus arm. Don't wait for it to blow.

For the unconventional wisdom, look no further than Rob Dibble, analyst for MASN by night, and radio host for SIRIUS XM's MLB Network Radio by day. Working his day job on Monday, Dibble issued what surely has to be the most prominent public critique of Strasburg's toughness to date. This one will get the people talking.

"I'm not a doctor, and I haven't read the MRI yet, but I'm pretty sure he's gonna come back fine," Dibble said as the "First Pitch" discussion began. "And for me, if you can throw the next day, then you probably could have continued out there on the baseball field. So are they a little bit overcautious at this point? Maybe. But he's a $15 million investment. I absolutely can't blame them for taking him out.

"But here's the thing. If this was happening to this kid in college and you knew that, then you also knew that he can pitch through this stuff. So a little bit is, ok, let's see this kid pitch through it.

"I also look at this from the player's standpoint, that this is your job. This is what you do. You're never going to be 100 percent healthy, feel perfect. So you have to take accountability that you're gonna throw sometimes, your arm's gonna hurt. You're gonna be out there on the mound sometimes, the mound is gonna be terrible and the dirt is gonna be a little loose and it might not be so great. You can't constantly be complaining over every little thing.

"So for me, a little bit has to be put back on Strasbug here. Ok, you throw a pitch, it bothers your arm, and you immediately call out the manager and the trainer? Suck it up, kid. This is your profession. You chose to be a baseball player. You can't have the cavalry come in and save your butt every time you feel a little stiff shoulder, sore elbow.

"I mean, excuse me. There's guys I played with that had screws holding their elbows together. Chris Sabo played two weeks on a broken ankle. I put a steel plate in my wrist so I could be back in five weeks instead of three months. So, this is your choice. You can either suck it up and be a man at 22 making $2 million a year [with] a $15 million contract, or every time you get an ache and pain you can go out of the game and say I'm gonna let down the other 24 guys right here and possibly end up forfeiting the game."

This was before the Nats said anything official about Strasburg's follow-up MRI, or about putting him on the disabled list. This was also before they clarified Mike Rizzo's initial comments, which had incorrectly indicated that Strasburg threw on Sunday morning. And Dibble attributed part of the problem to the malady of the pampered and entitled "modern-day player." Still, Rob Dibble would clearly like Stephen Strasburg to fight through whatever arm pain he's experiencing.

"What Mike Rizzo and Jim Riggleman do, that's totally different," Dibble said. "They have to think of the long-term ramifications of what they're doing right now with this kid's career. As far as this kid? Stop crying, go out there and pitch. Period.

"There's so many [other] guys....Josh Willingham, who is gonna have surgery on his left knee, was playing with torn cartilage in his knee, could barely run around the bases. This is the simple answer to this, you need to know the difference between pain and injury. When I was 12, my arm hurt. When I was in my teens and I would throw and walk off the mound when I was a starter, my arm would throb. I couldn't even hold a glass of water. And you know what? I loved it.

"I was so sick, I loved it, 'cause I felt 'ok, I'm throwing hard enough to make my arm shake when I'm just standing there.' So I was a totally different animal than I think has been created here with Strasburg, where now you're telling this kid as soon as you feel any arm pain, call us and we'll come help you. Please.

"This is the major leagues. This is not college any more. You're not on scholarship. You're being paid to do the job and guys depend on you, and I think it's unfortunate that the Nationals and the team are in a situation here where this kid now, he feels any kind of arm pain, he's gonna call you out? That's scary to me."

And like I said, the discussion ended with Dibble lamenting the nature of the modern player.

"You give these guys $15 million bucks, please," he said. "Get your butt out there and play every fifth day."

"If you're hurt, you can't suck it up, so that's a moot point, but if you're not hurt, that's what I was talking about. If you're not hurt and your arm's fine, then keep pitching....Our opinions are formulated through facts, not fiction, not their little chat room jargon, and so they can try and twist it any way they want, and if a guy's hurt, he's hurt, he's going to go on the disabled list, it's a moot point. But if he's not hurt, get your butt out there and play....They're two totally different scenarios, so, you know, stick to what you know, which is nothing, and stick to your little blogs."

Is he talking about Albert Haynesworth or Stephen Strasburg? I was a Dibble backer but he is really totally out of line here, especially when this is all management's decision and Strasburg has no say in the matter. Strasburg is doing exactly what he should do at this stage of his career (Especially in his FIRST year as a Pro) and let management make the first over-cautious moves. Strasburg has all the time in his career after this to "Man Up" after this season!

I'm with Dibs here-plenty of pitchers, at the begining of their careers experience stiffness and pain they haven't felt before. It's okay to check in, make sure nothing crazy has happened-but you have to get used to those things and pitch through them. "Living on the Black" chronicles Mussina and Glavine-both had similar throwing issues at the start of their career. Most of what resolved the issue was they just kept throwing.

Dibs is pointing out something important here-you've got to play, and you've got to play through it. You don't know what you can do until you push yourself-and as much as Strasburg has done, he's got a long way to go. He' isn't a bobblehead to be kept in a glass case, perfect condition for excellent resale value on Ebay-he's a pitcher. He needs to pitch.

Everyone seems to be piling on Dibble for his Strasburg comments. I happen to think Ron has a point. Strasburg never seems to look comfortable on the mound, always appearing as if something is bothering him. Like the mound itself in one of his earlier starts. Then his elbow, now his wrist, or whatever it is. It's always something with him. It appears as if he's afraid he's going to hurt himself or his million-dollar arm. Maybe he just doesn't like it here on the right coast - who knows? Or maybe he and his arm can't hack the stress of day after day and month after month pitching. This isn't college anymore, kid! It's a long (hot) summer around here! Get used to it, earn your big bucks, of find another profession. This from an old, lifelong Senators/Nats fan.

Dibble needs to go. He is a self-opinionated moron that adds nothing to the TV broadcast of the team and was the wrong guy from the start. MASN needs to get someone a little better in that booth to sit next to Crapenter. Sorry, Carpenter.

I understand Dibble's point, he just took it a little too far. I am sure that Dibble is a little disappointed that Strasburg is out again not just from a broadcaster's perspective but as a fan. He means well people.

Say what you will about Dibble's crazy old man point of view, but isn't it nice to have a team's broadcaster taking shots at the team or its star players once in a while? See how it's done, Larry Michael? You too, Buckhantz.

If he ends up getting surgery as some now surmise I hope I can be the first to throw a dozen eggs at Dibble's car in the parking lot along with a healthy amount of toilet paper. And a carefully worded sign that says something to the effect of : go back to Cincinnati ...

As has already been pointed-out, Strasburg wanted to stay in. In fact, he wanted to pitch that day he couldn't get his arm loose and ended-up going on the DL the first time. Dibble is way off base here.

Sorry Dibble is too old to have gotten a part of the huge salaries being given out these days. He had to get by on only a couple million a year. That doesn't mean he should be taking his jealousy out on someone who, even Dibble would admit, has 10-times as much talent.

He whines about any pitch within a foot of the plate that is not called a strike. He whines every time a pitcher comes out of a game before the seventh inning. He whines whenever a pitcher throws anything but a fastball to a .230 hitter -- unless the off-speed pitch gets an out. Then Dibble is all for it. And now he's telling Strasburg to, "...Stop crying, go out there and pitch."?

Someone aught to tell Dibble to, "Stop crying, go out there and stick to what you know." But then he wouldn't have much to say....

Could there be yet another Dibble apology coming? He'll blame it on the misinformation that Strasburg threw the morning after he came out of the game, but this was way over the top. He's a moron.

I'd like nothing better than to never listen to Dibble again. So @ShepDave please enlighten. I have Gameday audio, which is actually a second or two ahead of the radio. And MASN-HD is behind the radio by four seconds or so. Is there any way to get Charlie and Dave on delay so you can sync it with the MASN-HD video? Thanks.

222, the lag time between Gameday audio (on a laptop over the Internet) and the TV picture can vary widely. Night before last I was able to sync up the two without any problem at all. In fact, I don't even think I had to make an adjustment.

Yesterday, though, MASN-HD was too far behind to make it work.

However, the MLB At Bat 2010 app for the iPhone delays the audio quite a lot--even more than the MASN-HD delay. Yesterday on a hunch, I plugged my iPhone into my computer speakers, and with a little bit of pausing and playing of my DVR, it worked great.

This is what I'll be doing for games I don't attend the rest of the season. Even at the ballpark, they show MASN picture and Charlie-and-Dave sound. So this is how it will be in my home from now on.

I love the old school mentality.... but Strasburg doesn't strike me as a shammer.... he's a gamer. No sense blowing out your arm at this point... there is a larger picture here. Dibble just needs to shut his fat yap. Strasburg ain't Haynesworth...

Dibble is a fool. So he was 12 and his arm hurt and yet he still pitched? I guess he never heard of child abuse. I hope he never did that to his son. And he says he's not a doctor, yet he's "sure" the MRI will come back clean?

Dibble had one of the greatest arms I've ever seen, but I would never take any advice from him on how to protect a pitcher's arm. I don't necessarily agree that shutting him down is the best recourse, but the Nationals don't know how to stop it from happening. And neither do any of the other teams in MLB.

There's a former pitcher out there who won the 1974 NL Cy Young Award and has a Ph.D in exercise physiology, yet MLB won't listen to him as he says he knows how to prevent arm injuries. I won't mention his name, cause some will think I'm a shill for him. I'm not, but this "pitch count" and "innings pitched" stuff does not work. More pitchers are having surgeries than ever. It's the pitching motion and how they throw certain pitches that are causing these issues.

I'm guessing by his comments, this is Dibble's last year broadcasting Nats games. I hope Carpenter goes to. He should have gone years ago when Kasten wanted to fire him, but someone how the public outcry stopped him. Let him go back to doing Cards games. He talks too much.

Watch video below after the part about Andre Dawson getting kicked out of a game, when Dibble throws the ball at the Cubs player. The announcer says that Dibble isn't "wrapped too tight", and I agree. They should have showed this when Dawson was in the booth to get his reaction:

Rob Dibble had three years as a fantastic relief pitcher, two years as a really good relief pitcher, and two years as a horrible relief pitcher. His career, during which he pitched a total of 477 innings, ended at age 31 due to injury.

We should care what he has to say about what is in the long-term best interests of Stephen Strasburg's career and arm health why, again?

Sure -- Strasburg could pitch through whatever. It might work for him as well as it worked for Chad Cordero, John Patterson, and Shawn Hill. Oh, wait, none of them are active major league pitchers any more? Too bad....they didn't man up.

I'm with Mr. Dibble. It's time to see what Strasburg can do. And I don't mean let's watch him throw 5 innings and then take him out of the game. If he's worth the money, he should go 9 innings every 4th or 5th day. If he doesn't pitch again until next spring, this season will have to be characterized as a bust.

Every generation thinks theirs was the baddest and toughest. Dibble? Yeah, big strong bad ass. Total knucklehead, too. In 10 years we'll have the likes of Papelbon telling us how tough his peers were back in the day.

Good God, you Nats fans are a bunch of baseball-know-nothings. Dibble's right, Strasburg needs to pitch through this. He needs to work on his arm strength and get his endurance up. Keep on sounding off Dibs!!! You're the best thing on the Nats telecast. The guy with you is just a lackey for the team. Nats fans are the least knowledgeable fans in sports other than CAPS-bandwagoner-fans (Get your Red-On my butt!!!).

Dibble is dead on in the critique of the modern player and the era of 5 inning "quality starts". I think the kid is tough, and this time, only, since they aren't playing for anything, it is ok to err on the side of caution.

If you were watching the game- and surely almost none of you actually were- you could clearly see Strasburg asking to come out. He signaled to the dugout that something was wrong, and he didn't get ready to toe the rubber for the next pitch. He knew he was done. If you're denying that, you're only proving that you weren't watching the game.

I can't blame Strasburg, because he's been taught to believe he's the second coming and any sign of pain is a catastrophe. But I agree with Dibble- at some point in your pro career you're going to have to pitch hurt.

I do think this spells the end for Dibble though, which is a shame. Get ready for some Larry Michaels-esque buffoon in the booth next year, with a broadcast as boring as the product the team usually puts on the field.

DIBBLE..IS ARCHAIC...FROM AN ANCIENT TINE IN BASEBALL.
WHY TAKE A CHANCE ON EVEN A POSSIBILITY OF SERIOUSLY INJURING THE ARM OF A YOUNG PLAYER..WHO THE TEAM HOPES TO BE THEIR ACE FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS? HOW DID ANYONE KNOW THE EXTENT OF HIS ARM PROBLEM WHEN IT OCCURRED? DIBBLE SHOULD NOTE WHERE THE NATS ARE IN THE STANDINGS. THE ONLY BENEFIT TO HAVING STRASBURG PITCH (IN SPITE OF INJURY)..IS TO GET MORE FANS
IN THE SEATS. IF HE RUINED HIS ARM...THEN ALL THOSE FANS WOULD BE LOST FOR THE COMING YEARS.
EVEN DURING DIBBLE`S TIME..DID THE TEAM RISK A YOUNG FRANCHISE PLAYER..ESPECIALLY WHEN THE TEAM WAS OUT OF ANY CONTENTION?

Not only would the Nats be right in shutting down Strasburg, they need to get rid of that loud-mouth Dibble. He adds nothing to the telecast except to remind all of us how great he is and how smart he is.

Given what Dibble knew at the time (no MRI result, thinking Strasburg had thrown with no pain the next day) I can understand his point of view.

The game where Strasburg sweated through his jersey and had to keep fumbling with the buttons between every pitch illustrates the type of pressure the kid is under. He looks uncomfortable a lot on the mound, and at the time Dibble had that rant it was looking like the pain was something that Strasburg overreacted to because he has so much pressure on him to not hurt himself.

As he said, there's a difference between pain and injury. Now it looks like a real injury, so lets move on and talk about reality, which is rehab and getting ready for spring training.

Piling on Dibble is a Bog tradition, tbartley. I suppose because it drives up the clicks, especially from the Dibble-haters. I like Dibble, but I don't happen to agree with him on this one. That said, he's certainly not alone in that line of thinking, and he's entitled to his opinion, imo. After all, it's not like the team is making decisions about players based on what broadcasters, bloggers, or even anonymous web commenters say, is it? ;-)

---

Everyone seems to be piling on Dibble for his Strasburg comments. I happen to think Ron has a point. Strasburg never seems to look comfortable on the mound, always appearing as if something is bothering him. Like the mound itself in one of his earlier starts. Then his elbow, now his wrist, or whatever it is. It's always something with him. It appears as if he's afraid he's going to hurt himself or his million-dollar arm. Maybe he just doesn't like it here on the right coast - who knows? Or maybe he and his arm can't hack the stress of day after day and month after month pitching. This isn't college anymore, kid! It's a long (hot) summer around here! Get used to it, earn your big bucks, of find another profession. This from an old, lifelong Senators/Nats fan.

Regardless of anything on his Strasburg comments, I enjoy Dibble when he's broadcasting the Nats games, and really believe something is missing when he's not there.

I don't get the supposed hatred of him - a team's broadcasters don't have to be all nice to the team constantly....as the team's aren't always right and can be criticized. Last time I checked, there hasn't been a championship pro team around here in quite awhile.

Patrick at Federalbaseball.com has transcribed some of Dibble's response to the criticism. I'm sure Steinberg will get a kick out of this one. Here's a snippet, but read the whole thing please so Dibs does can't accuse of taking it out of context: "if a guy's hurt, he's hurt, he's going to go on the disabled list, it's a moot point, but if he's not hurt, get your butt out there and play....they're two totally different scenarios, so, you know, stick to what you know, which is nothing, and stick to your little blogs."

@Natsfan1a1 I'm pretty sure if you read what I wrote, there's not a word of criticism about Dibble. Not one word. I said it was an "unconventional" take, which I would stand by, but the criticism isn't coming from me.

I quoted his words extensively, without commentary. They're his words. He said them. I just presented them.

And I know you're into the Nats, but check out some Wizards and/or Caps broadcasts sometime. The broadcast teams there are obviously sympathetic to the home team, and yet they're absolutely beloved by D.C. fans. This isn't some symptom of Washington where people pick on the home-team broadcaster. This is its own case.

I happen to find the manner in which Dibble cheers in the booth distracting and borderline cringeworthy. I've absolutely criticized him for that.

Wow. Remember when Angelos fired John Miller because they "felt like he should bleed a little more orange"? I hope Dibble realized the last 5 weeks of this season will be an on-air audition for another gig. No way he's back after shooting his mouth off like this.

Don't see anything wrong with Dibble's comments. He's basically telling Strasburg to suck it up to the extent he can. If the guy is really hurt, then he can't suck it up. Nothing controversial there. I will say that the Nationals have treated this guy with bubble wrap and he's STILL constantly got issues. What will happen in a couple of years when he actually has to pitch a full season?

My problem with Dibble is not his criticism of the team. I also have no problem with him being a homer.

What I have a problem with is his seeming to love his own voice so much, even when he has nothing to say. One minute a pitcher should attack the strike zone; next at-bat for the same hitter, the pitcher should stay away from the strike zone. Hot and cold hindsight analysis--depending completely upon what the outcome was.

In fact, his comments about Strasburg seem to show this. In the same discourse, he acknowledges that the team needs to protect their big investment, and then he slams Strasburg for coming out of the game. He wants to have it both ways all at once.

Truly, he often sounds like a man much older than I (and I've got a good 11-12 years on Dibs), growling about the good old days long after everybody else has stopped listening or caring.

He was good early in the season. The curmudgeon act is getting a bit old, though.

To clarify, no doubt I'm missing something, as I didn't hear the (Dibble) remarks in question. But reading them out of context, it wasn't clear to me whether they were referring to this particular organizational site or to independent blogs in general. I took it to be the latter.

Dan: Color commentators are good when they call out players for poor efforts, stupid play and make some insights as to the good things and why they are good, which teaches the non-player fan and kids some decent baseball knowledge. Dibble has done an excellent job discussing the young staff arms and has been honestly tame on some of the stupid baseball exhibited by Morgan and others. Don't know why he's on your hit list.

once the guy is a veteran and the nats are in the playoff hunt (both will be similarly far off), yeah, he'll need to work through pain. but having him jepoardise his arm for the sake of meaningless wins at this point is utter lunacy. the managers owe it not only to the team and ownership to protect the investment, but to Strasburg so nothing jepoardises what is sure to be a Hall of Fame career.

once the guy is a veteran and the nats are in the playoff hunt (both will be similarly far off), yeah, he'll need to work through pain. but having him jepoardise his arm for the sake of meaningless wins at this point is utter lunacy. the managers owe it not only to the team and ownership to protect the investment, but to Strasburg so nothing jepoardises what is sure to be a Hall of Fame career.

It's his rookie year, he's close to the number of innings they wanted for him to pitch before shutting him down anyway. Why risk it? What's the up side? He was mowing batters down like a Logger in the Brazilian Amazon so you know what you've got.

and Dibble would be the first one lined up to cut the carcass if Riggleman kept him out there and he got permanently injured.

Dibble’s a blow hard who talks before he thinks. I do listen to the baseball morning show on XM driving in just about every morning and I heard his comments live yesterday as well as the “your little blog” follow-up this morning.

Dibble is a fool. If anything, Strasburg wanted to stay in the game Saturday --- the reason he’s (SS) so quick to pounce on any and every twinge or tweak is that the club has been drilling this stuff into him since Day One. From Rizzo on down to McCatty I’m sure they’ve hammered at the kid to let them know as soon as something doesn’t feel right.

If Dibble wants to argue that major league pitchers are, in general, pampered more today than in the past, fine. I don’t even disagree with him there. And there are plenty of examples of this out there. But Strasburg isn’t one of them. This is a young kid still learning how to pitch in the majors and read his body and other physical signs. He’s not the grizzled vet yet who, in Dibble’s words (he also said this yesterday), can “just spit on it” and everything will be OK.

What was Dibble's commentary before Stras signed his contract? Something like, "this guy hasn't proven anything, he's never got a professional hitter out, I don't even consider you a major leaguer until you've been in the league two years, blah, blah, blah".

Then his tune changed as soon as he signed. He's had nothing but praise on every broadcast. I haven't heard these things on MASN.

Dude is a blowhard. Just listen to him during games. Has to have an opinion on every pitch so he ends up contradicting himself from one inning to the next, one game to the next.

Funny, his main point Saturday was that Stras should throw his change "10 times in a row", cause that's what Mario Soto told him. Turns out, that's what caused the injury.

Remember the filly "Eight Belles?" And there are dozens of 2 and 3 -year-olds like her every racing season, horses stretched beyond their limits who end up euthanized. Compare ""Eight Belles" to the great "Forego," who did the bulk of his running after age five.

The greatest pitcher of them all, Warren Spahn, won the bulk of his games after age 27, when he returned from WW2. He was quoted somewhere years ago as attributing his unparalleled endurance to his late start as a full-grown man.

So go ahead and fill the 24-hour news cycle with drivel, if you will, Dibble. But Nats management is being wise and prudent in holding the rookie in check. There's nothing to gain by putting him out there late in a losing season, and EVERYTHING to loose.

Players have been playing with aches, pains and all kinds of soreness for decades and the average career of good players was just as long as any in the game today. In fact, many of those "good players" careers were longer and without numerous or extended trips to the DL. The players were stronger, tougher and for the most part, in much better condition.

The "modern player" is slowing becoming an over protected, fragile piece of glassware.

The Nats are doing Stephen Strasburg a disservice by making arbitrary decisions without asking the player how "he feels". Strasburg said himself, that he felt fine and even showed up ready to resume his regular routine. Sadly, his over protective mommy (Mike Rizzo and company) "decided" he should go on the DL.

The Nats are breeding a bunch of wimps. I don't think even one other team in all of baseball has had even half as many players on the disabled list over the past five years, that the Nats have.

Professional baseball players want to play baseball, wimps are always looking for mommy to come to their rescue.

If the Nats cant find men to play the game, then they should find other work, because the job they are doing now to keep their players in game condition isn't cutting it.

Who do you blame? You blame the players who don't take care of their bodies. You blame the coaches, who don't make sure their players are in game shape. You blame the managers who allow their players to take the field, when they have no business out there. You blame management for not putting a strong conditioning system in place.

The Nats have 37 more games to play, and I'm positive that there will be more than a couple more players hit the DL. Why? Because the Nats front office, its coaches and whoever they have that call themselves conditioning coaches haven't a clue as to what they are doing.

As a long time fan of this team, I'm sick of seeing so many key players end up on the disabled list. It's not normal and the number of players that have been sent to the DL over the past 5 years, is totally unacceptable.

Players have been playing with aches, pains and all kinds of soreness for decades and the average career of good players was just as long as any in the game today. In fact, many of those "good players" careers were longer and without numerous or extended trips to the DL. The players were stronger, tougher and for the most part, in much better condition.

The "modern player" is slowing becoming an over protected, fragile piece of glassware.

The Nats are doing Stephen Strasburg a disservice by making arbitrary decisions without asking the player how "he feels". Strasburg said himself, that he felt fine and even showed up ready to resume his regular routine. Sadly, his over protective mommy (Mike Rizzo and company) "decided" he should go on the DL.

The Nats are breeding a bunch of wimps. I don't think even one other team in all of baseball has had even half as many players on the disabled list over the past five years, that the Nats have.

Professional baseball players want to play baseball, wimps are always looking for mommy to come to their rescue.

If the Nats cant find men to play the game, then they should find other work, because the job they are doing now to keep their players in game condition isn't cutting it.

Who do you blame? You blame the players who don't take care of their bodies. You blame the coaches, who don't make sure their players are in game shape. You blame the managers who allow their players to take the field, when they have no business out there. You blame management for not putting a strong conditioning system in place.

The Nats have 37 more games to play, and I'm positive that there will be more than a couple more players hit the DL. Why? Because the Nats front office, its coaches and whoever they have that call themselves conditioning coaches haven't a clue as to what they are doing.

As a long time fan of this team, I'm sick of seeing so many key players end up on the disabled list. It's not normal and the number of players that have been sent to the DL over the past 5 years, is totally unacceptable.

Let's be clear here. A former relief pitcher who pitched a CAREER HIGH of 99 innings in one season in 1989 whose career was derailed by injuries is telling a starting pitcher who has already pitched 123 innings this year to not worry about injuries and to "suck it up."

I get the feeling it's the WIMPS around him....Riggleman the Robot Retread ,Ratzo Rizzo..and the loathsome Kasten who have handled this guy like he is a motherless baby fawn .....It's sickening, but it continues their EXCUSES to keep LOSING like the LOSERS they ARE......

comparing field players and pitchers is not really fair when talking about injuries. dibble is a contradictor...hence his opinion is just that. i think we would all like to see SS pitch a long and prosperous career. to send him out there to pitch anymore this season really makes no sense. times change in sports and during this time players tend to be more in tune with their bodies. not to say players weren't aware of ailments. to me this is really a none argument. pitch through the pain and you are macho man, pitch through the pain and do serious damage that needs to be repaired and you are jeapordizing your full potential. where do you draw the line? that's what management is attempting to do. i'm sure SS would have pitched more if he were allowed to. he seems to me to have a little bulldog in him. he is on a leash, and he dealing with that. dibble i think, likes to play the devil's advocate whenever possible(after every pitch), so for him to say suck it up, was merely to start this conversation imo. it's better to err on the side of caution at this point in time than to be calling for gut checks, or asking do you have your macho man card. leave it alone for now. next season or so see how SS reacts when the manager comes out to the mound with the hook. that's when you'll be better able to judge his guts.

"What I have a problem with is his seeming to love his own voice so much, even when he has nothing to say. One minute a pitcher should attack the strike zone; next at-bat for the same hitter, the pitcher should stay away from the strike zone. Hot and cold hindsight analysis--depending completely upon what the outcome was"

Say, aren't you the same guy who stirred up the pot about Dibble's comments about the non-Fan 'ladies' sitting behind home plate? Do you have something personal against Dibble? What gives? He's entitled to his opinion as much as Boswell. He's not a WaPo staffer, but he is an ex-pitcher, which gives him at least as much credibility as a newspaper writer or a blogger like you. I kind of agree with Dibble on this one. As a matter of fact, here's what I posted yesterday on MASN's site:
"I understand caution, but if he [Strasburg] ends up out for the season, effectively, doesn't that mean that we haven't seen him go even 160 innings yet? So will his limit next year be 160 innings again? And what about ever going deep into a game? When will he have those necessary opportunities to go up against a broader range of big league batters? When will he get that experience? At this rate, treating him like a china doll, we'll never get our money's worth - we'll never get a reliable pitcher that can pitch something like 30 games in a season and at least 7 innings a game. If he can't do that by his 2nd or 3rd year, or can't do it until we decided we're not scared to let him pitch, what did we sign him for? It's like those folks who list very expensive china on their wedding registars and then, when they get the place settings, never use them because they're too expensive or too fragile. What's the use of the china if you don't use it? What's the use of a pitcher who doesn't pitch? If Strasburg thinks he could pitch & if he has pitched through this before and at least some doctors think he's not really injured, why treat him like Albert Haynesworth wants to be treated? At the very least, if we're shutting the kid down this year, make sure he talks to Pudge about conditioning routines for during the season & in the post-season. And have him ask Pudge about Nolan Ryan's conditioning routines. Heck, have him go down & talk to Nolan Ryan himself. They're similar pitchers (I bet Nolan even experienced a flexor tendon twinge from time to time & pitched through it) - have him figure out what it takes to have the stamina & longevity of a Nolan Ryan and then we'll have a pitcher worth the money we're paying him."
By the way, is the Washington Post paying you to primarily blog about stuff Dibble says? Maybe that's a waste of my subscription dollars that I've paid the Post for 20+ years.

Good story! I love this guys honesty. It is a lot of money to be paid if you are just really sore, you got to work! If everyone in America took off because they were hurting somewhere, no one would be at work. If you have talent you gotta use it. No excuses! That said, if he is really in danger then of course, rest the fella.But, MLB doesn't matter if it ruins the arm of an unknown, it happens all the time, it is a part of the game. Take the amphetamines out of the game and these guys would fall over at about 110 games, let's have a story about that, OK. It is a drug induced sport, always has been, always will be.

Good story! I love this guys honesty. It is a lot of money to be paid if you are just really sore, you got to work! If everyone in America took off because they were hurting somewhere, no one would be at work. If you have talent you gotta use it. No excuses! That said, if he is really in danger then of course, rest the fella.But, MLB doesn't matter if it ruins the arm of an unknown, it happens all the time, it is a part of the game. Take the amphetamines out of the game and these guys would fall over at about 110 games, let's have a story about that, OK. It is a drug induced sport, always has been, always will be.

Good story! I love this guys honesty. It is a lot of money to be paid if you are just really sore, you got to work! If everyone in America took off because they were hurting somewhere, no one would be at work. If you have talent you gotta use it. No excuses! That said, if he is really in danger then of course, rest the fella.But, MLB doesn't matter if it ruins the arm of an unknown, it happens all the time, it is a part of the game. Take the amphetamines out of the game and these guys would fall over at about 110 games, let's have a story about that, OK. It is a drug induced sport, always has been, always will be.

Hey Rob, the Nats are 20 games beliow .500, the season is over. Your comments would be valid if they were in a pennant race, and I believe Stasburg doesn't want to let the other guys down. He seems to be a gamer who wants to go out there and compete. But better to be safe than sorry, unless you want to pull a Dusty Baker & ruin a young arm

It's Saturday, and Dibble is due back in the booth tonight. Looks like he'd better be the one to "suck it up" and face the irate fans.

To paraphrase Dibble himself, this is your job. This is what you do. You're never going to say 100 percent the right thing. So you have to take accountability that you're gonna say something sometimes and people will get upset at you.

A little bit has to be put back on Dibble here. Ok, you say something, it bothers the fans, and you immediately take several days off and hide? Suck it up, kid. This is your profession. You chose to be a commentator. You can't run and hide every time you say something that makes the fans mad.

I get so frustrated with these people who say that Dibble should stick to what he knows. Come on people, he IS sticking to what he knows. He played the game, he lived the game. The guy has an opinion and you want him fired for it??? I hope that's not the way it works at your job.